Towns & Post Offices

Excerpt From Andreas' "1884 Historical Atlas of Dakota"

Grand Harbor

This thriving town situated at the head of Teller's Bay, which projects in a northeasterly direction from the main lake, and about six miles northwest from the city of Devils Lake, on one of the finest harbors on the lake. It was laid out in the spring of 1882, and the first house put up in the summer of that year by A. J. Wirtz. The first lots were sold on the 9th of June. The place has grown quite rapidly, and now contains a weekly newspaper, The Devils Lake Globe, established by A. J. Garner, April 26 1883, the first paper wholly edited and published on Devils Lake; a half dozen stores, two hotels, a blacksmith shop, several saloons, and a considerable population. The town is finely situated. The extension of the railway north will probably make this a point. There is deep water in the bay all the way up to the town.

Bartlett

This place, located near the east line of the county, on Section 25, Town 153, Range 61 was commenced in the fall of 1882, upon the completion of the St. Paul, Minneapolis and Manitoba Railway to that point, and for a number of months had a wonderful growth and business, the population, at its maximum, reaching 1,000. There were 250 buildings in the place, and the people had high hopes that its boom would be a permanent one. But the laying out of Lakota, in Nelson County, four miles east of Bartlett, and the establishment of the county seat at the new town, resulted in the removal of the bulk of its business to Lakota and the city of Devils Lake. One hotel building was taken down and removed to West End, in Benson County, where it was metamorphosed into a number of cottages. There remains at Bartlett two hotels, several stores, and altogether some twenty five or thirty buildings.

Midway & Tracy

Post offices on the railway between Devils lake and Bartlett.

Locke

The name of a post office situated on the northeast bay of Sweet Water Lake, in Town 155, range 63. It was named for a gentleman who entered a large amount of land lying around the lake. It is picturesquely situated.

De Groat

A post office in Town 156, Range 65.

Odessa

On the east shore of the lake, in Town 152, Range 63, was laid out on a large scale, in anticipation of the railway making a crossing here. At present it is simply a post office.

Jerusalem

A post office on the eastern side of Lamoreaux Bay, in Town 152, Range 62.

Dana's Grove & Rogers

Post offices on the eastern margin of the lake, northwest of Odessa. The only post office in the Indian reservation is at Fort Totten.

Iron Heart, chief of the Cut Head Sioux, keeps a hotel at the southeastern extremity of Devils Lake, in the reservation.